Potty Training 101

I worked with children for 15 years and I loved every minute of it. The parents would call me the potty training queen. I mean I didn’t come up with it. lol I know working parents don’t have the time or the energy to deal with potty training. They need a little help to get them started.

I would only start training the children when I saw they were ready.

Ways the children show you they are ready

Telling you they are wet or have poop.

Taking their diaper off.

Stay dry for long period of times.

Interested in the bathroom.

If you notice them hiding when they are going in their diapers.

Potty training takes a lot of patience but once you get the hang of things it will go by quickly. If it is possible for you to stay home for a few days, like a long weekend I’d highly recommend it.

When I was a teacher and teaching the children I felt like it was completely different than potty training my own children.

How it was different

The room was designed for messes and easy cleanup

The children saw that “Big kids” were using the bathroom.

We didn’t have errands to run.

Everything was smaller for the children.

Okay, start small. With my own children, I wanted to start training them right when they turned 14 months. That just was too early for them. But letting them try to go to the bathroom before and after bed and bath time were great ways to get them excited for potty time.

Another thing I saw that worked very well with my boys was the potty Elmo. They wanted to help Elmo to the potty and they would go too. They also loved potty books.

Now when they are really ready and showing signs this is what you will need:

Underwear

A timer

Reward chart with stickers

M&Ms or Skittles

Potty books and toys

Potty Training seat

Now I have two boys and over the years, I have gotten peed on. So I have taught my boys along with several others to sit backward on the toilet so they don’t pee everywhere.

Downfalls to this, my oldest is almost 7 and still sits backward when he poops. He has to strip down everything. He can not poop in public. The potty training seat I have in the link above is perfect. Plus you don’t want to get those small potties because that’s is all they will feel comfortable to go potty in. (I had a mother bring a little potty around wherever she went because that was the only way the little girl would go.) The inserts help them get use to a “Big potty”

Here we go…

Start off introducing the potty to them slowly as I mentioned before. Then when you have a few days off and nowhere to go. Put the diapers away (except sleep time) and just wear underwear. Set a timer for every 15 minutes. Yes, I know this will get tiring but it’s worth it. If they pee you can set it 5 minutes longer. If they have an accident start back to 15 minutes. Don’t ever go longer than one hour in between. To have them go for the first time, tell them to relax and see if they can make bubbles in the toilet. Don’t have them sit long if they don’t have to go then they can get off. If you make them sit there for a long time until they go they will think of it as a punishment. Also if you decide to use a small potty, leave it in the bathroom.

Have a sticker chart out for them to get a sticker they can put on when they pee. Let them have one candy when they poop.

After a few days of them doing really good start taking diapers away at nap time. If you notice they are dry when they wake up in the morning start going without diapers at bedtime. I use a mattress protector on their beds.

NUMBER ONE RULE: Stay consistent!! If you do it one day and then wake up not doing it the next day, they are not going to learn. It will be hard in the beginning but once they are trained life gets a lot easier. I hope you got some useful tips. If you have any questions please reach out to me. Love ya, Mary xoxo